Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Dirty Sue Review

Or, why John sucks at product photography.

I enjoy a good dirty vodka martini, but it puts me in a spot: if you like your martinis dirty, and you buy a jar of olives at the store, you will inevitably use up the brine long before the olives are gone and they'll rot.

When I last opined on this, Eric from Dirty Sue offered to send me some Dirty Sue Dirty Martini Mix (olive juice), which I had found as a possible solution to the problem. As if by magic, after a particularly long day I arrived home to find two bottles of Dirty Sue in my mailbox.

The packaging, as you can see, is lovely - a 375ml bottle (larger size available for bars, restaurants, and alcoholics) with a cork stopper, wine-bottle style. It's a good start, but does it make a good martini?

In fact, it does - a significant improvement over the store-brand olive brine that's just about the only thing I can get here in the sticks. Nicely briny, not hugely vinegary. Just right. What struck me initially as expensive ($5.99/bottle plus shipping) now also makes a lot of sense - my super-dirty (a half ounce? I'm just gettin' started!) martinis drain a $5.99 jar of olives in less than three drinks, plus many olives go to waste. With Dirty Sue I should easily get 7-8 super-dirty martinis out of a bottle, my olives will stay fresh, and I can still use the brine in the olive jar when they're done - although sparingly, now that I have better stuff. Perhaps I'll save that for third martinis.

In short this is a must have for the serious home mixologist, dirty martini lover, or any bar that sells a dirty martini... ever. I'll be back as a paying customer.